The San Francisco Giants and reliever Javier Lopez have finally come to an agreement on a new three-year contract that will guarantee the lefty specialist $13 million through 2016, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
The two sides have been near a deal for the past several days, and an official announcement is expected sometime Thursday afternoon after Lopez completes his physical.
Lopez, a free agent this offseason, has been with San Francisco the past three-and-a-half seasons and has been a key part of the team's bullpen. Working primarily as a left-handed specialist, he has tossed 147⅓ innings over 236 appearances with the Giants. In that span, he has a 2.26 ERA and 1.18 WHIP and has been among the best lefty relievers in baseball.
Lopez, 36, has really come into his own as a relief pitcher the past eight years. Despite control issues at times and an injury-marred and ineffective 2009 campaign, he has a 2.75 ERA since 2006 as he has pitched for the Red Sox, Pirates and Giants.
Lopez has earned $4.25 million each of his last two seasons in San Francisco, so his new contract acts as only a very slight raise. If parsed out evenly over the next three seasons, he'll make $4.3 million per year.
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